


The Old Testament

by Alexander_Dsh



Category: Christian Bible (Old Testament)
Genre: Apple of Eden, Blood, Creation, Death, F/M, Gan Eden | Garden of Eden | Jannah, Gen, Jealousy, Multi, Noah's Ark, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Sacrifice, Snakes, Violence, might be canceled
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-01
Updated: 2018-12-12
Packaged: 2019-09-05 04:35:03
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 1,964
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16803739
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Alexander_Dsh/pseuds/Alexander_Dsh
Summary: I tried to adapt the illustrated Old Testament book I had (and still do) as a child. I began reading it again and thought it'd be a good idea to adapt it into literature!





	1. GENESIS — Creation of the World

In the beginning, God created the Heaven and the Earth.

Earth was a barren, shapeless mass and darkness covered the abyss. The spirit of God rose over the waters.

Then God said: " **Let there be light!** " And there was light. God separated light from dark and then there were day and night.

Then He separated water from land. He created seas, oceans, mountains and plains. He commanded the land to grow plants, grass, flowers and fruits. He cast the stars, planets and other celestial bodies to sky. Moon was created to light up the night, while during day the Sun gave light. Afterwards, God created various beings: birds, reptiles and other animals and beasts.

Then God said: " **Let us make mankind in Our image and likeliness, so that they may rule all the creatures that move along the ground and in water.** "

Adn God created Adam of dust of the earth and inhaled him a spirit of life in his nostrils — the man became a living soul.

For Adam not to be alone, God created him a companion. Blessing both of them, He said: " **Live together, breed and multiply, rule over the Earth. I gave you all you need.** "

God created a beautiful garden and put the man and woman inside of it. In the garden, on great grassy plains, there were four shiny water sources, trees with a lot of fruits, colorful flowers of wonderful scent... And in the middle of the garden — Tree of Life.

However, the fruits of one tree were not allowed to Adam and his companion — fruits from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.  
God told Adam: " **Eat whatever you want, but do not ever eat the fruits from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. If you do that — you will die!** "

And Adam and his companion lived in that beautiful surrounding — they were walking naked through the Garden of Eden, but they didn't feel embarrassed. Not knowing what good and evil were, they lived peacefully. They had anything they could want; they didn't know for pain or worry. And all the animals were happy and peaceful — together slept dog and cat, lion and gazelle.


	2. GENESIS — The Snake

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "But if we eat from that fruit... we will die!"

Out of all the beings God created, the snake had the most skill, but was also the most cunning.

One sunny afternoon, the snake talked to the woman: "Why do you not eat the fruits off the trees in the Garden of Eden?"

"Oh, we do", woman replied. "We only do not eat the fruit that God forbid us to eat. If we eat it, we will die!"

"You will not die", the snake hissed. "If you eat it, you will become like God Himself!"

Woman was stunned by these words. She went to the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil and stared at the fresh, ambrosial fruits. She hesitated at first, then dared to pick one and took a bite off the alluring fruit. Meanwhile, Adam came along and the woman gave him the fruit to eat.

Suddenly, everything changed!

As soon as he bit the fruit, Adam astoundedly looked at the woman next to him. At that moment, they both realized they are naked and felt ashamed. They quickly grabbed fig leaves to cover their nudity.

While they stood next to each other, embarrassed and confused, God called them. Instead of answering Him like before, they got afraid and ran to hide. However, God still called their names. Adam dared to answer: "Here we are, in the bushes! We are naked! We are ashamed for You to see us like that!"

God realized that man and woman did not obey His order, which angered Him.

" **Cursed you shall be! From now on, you, man, will have to sweat and work arduously to survive. And you, woman, will take enormous pains to give birth to your children. Remember! From earth you got out and to earth you will go back!** " For, God created man from earth and inhaled him life.

With these words, God cast out Adam and his woman from the Garden of Eden and set one of His guardian angels to guard the path to the Tree of Life in the garden.


	3. GENESIS — Cain and Abel

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Why are you jealous?"

Adam gave his companion the name **Eve** , which stood for "Mother of the Alive". The world they were living in now was not full of happiness and peace anymore. That was a punishment for disobeying God.

Adam and Eve had to cultivate the fields to have food. They had to make clothes from the fur of the animals to be warm. They had to kill animals to save their very own lives and feed themselves. And then there was the day the human blood was spilt!

Adam and Eve had many children. Two oldest boys were named **Cain** and **Abel**. Abel, a benevolent young man, was a cattleman, while the other one, Cain, was a farmer.

One day, Abel offered to God, as a sacrifice, the largest lamb. Cain brought a sacrifice to Him as well. However, due to a good heart and generosity, God commended Abel.

That made Cain angry and he felt jealous at his brother.  
God scolded him: " **Why are you angry? If you do good, good shall come back. Should you be evil, the evil will hunt you down as well!** "

Cain did not answer, but soon his wrath and jealousy turned into hate.

One day, he offered his brother: "Let us go on a walk."

  
Abel, without any fear and doubt, accepted the offer, not suspecting that Cain would, as soon as they are in the field, kill him in a cold-blooded way. Sure that no one saw the murder, Cain went home.

However, soon he heard the voice of God: " **Cain, where is your brother?** "

"I do not know", Cain answered impolitely. "I am not his keeper!"

" **What have you done?** ", God's voice echoed. " **The blood of your brother is calling me from below the earth! Now you are cursed! For the rest of your life you shall be a wanderer!** "


	4. GENESIS — Noah and the Ark

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> God had a plan.  
> A plan that this world would be so different from this Hell the innocents are living.  
> ...
> 
> But who will He save?

The descendants of Adam and Eve bred and multiplied, spreading over the Earth. However, the blood spilt by Cain infested the humanity's conscience.

As the years went by, people were losing their love and respect towards God. Earth became a kingdom of pride, violence and evil.

God regret that He created the humans in the first place and decided to punish all of humanity.

There was only one man who had a right to be blessed. It was **Noah** , a wise and honest person, living with his family following the laws of God. And one day, He spoke to Noah:  
"I shall cause a great flood on Earth, to destroy any sign of life. The humanity's time has come!

But you, Noah, shall build a mighty ark. You shall take your wife and sons **Shem** , **Ham** and **Japheth** with their wives too. You shall bring a pair, a male and a female, of every beast that I had created, to live on. Prepare enough food for yourselves and animals."

Noah, helped by his sons, began building an ark, the exact way God commanded him. They brought one pair of all the living creatures and embarked them on the ship. Wild and domestic animals, reptiles and birds, big and small creatures — there was enough room for everyone. There weren't any quarrels or conflicts.

While everyone was getting aboard, the sky was overflowing with large, dark clouds and a threatening thunder laid ahead. When God locked Noah, his family and all the animals inside, a large rain had commenced.


	5. GENESIS — The Flood

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What is happening?

At first, people have thought that it was only a long thunderstorm. But seeing the days passing by, without the rain coming to a stop, fear began growing within them.

"What is happening?", everyone wondered.

Therewere large floods. Rivers overfilled their riverbeds, water flooded everything. People searched for safety on the roofs of their houses, but the level of water rose day by day. Horrified, they escaped up to hills, taking as much possessions as they could. When water covered the hills as well, people climbed the high mountain peaks. Noah's ark floated atop, while the rain mercilessly dropped from clouds. Everyone who was in the ark realized that God brought his terrifying anger over all of Earth.

It rained for forty days. Everything was flooded — even the highest mountains. All living beings were obliterated off of the face of Earth. A huge ocean spread into distance as corpses floated on the water. Even the birds had died, for they had no branches to find that they could rest on.

Then, God remembered Noah and decided to stop the rain. He started a wind to fend the clouds off of the sky. It rained less frequently, only for the rain to stop completely. Though, it still took one hundred and fifty days for the water to start retreating, and the mountain peaks to start appearing. Noah's ark stopped on the hills of Ararat.

Forty days later, Noah dared to open a window and send a raven. Since it had no place it could land on, the raven returned to the ark. Then Noah sent a dove for to discover if the water is retreating, but it got back exhausted and tired, still no place where it would rest its wings.

Noah caught the dove and brought her back into the safety of ark. Will the water ever disappear?

Noah waited for one more week and then he sent the dove again.   
This time, she got back holding an olive branch in her beak. It was the sign that the tree canopies were above the water again!

The olive branch brought by the dove and the rainbow that appeared on the sky were reliable signs that God had calmed down, and then He Himself talked to Noah:  
"You may get out of the ark now, Noah, along with your wife and sons, daughters-in-law and all the animals. Let them go wherever they want, let them breed and multiply, so that the life may continue on Earth!"


	6. GENESIS — The Tower of Babel

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Excuse me, can you help me with this?  
> Quid? Non intellego.  
> Τι εννοείτε με αυτό?  
> Извини, али ја не схватам шта причаш.  
> Lo siento, no entiendo.  
> ?סלח לי  
> ?هل يمكنك تكرار ذلك، من فضلك

Noah did as God told him and the life started again. The birds flew away, reptiles went their ways, while beasts returned to forests and deserts. The descendants of Shem, Ham and Japheth, Noah's sons, spread across the Earth.

Each one of the sons started a new people and they went various ways. Even though they were different, everyone in the world spoke the same languages and understood each other.

In that time, the descendants of Noah settled on east, in the land of **Shinar**. There, they decided to build a city which would have a center with a tower, as high as to reach the sky.

But God knew that they were not building the tower for respect and belief for Him, but for pride. He decided not to ever let them build the tower to reach the sky. Humanity had already been punished for its disobedience, and this time God was merciful — he only mixed up their languages, so they cannot understand each other.

  
When carpenters would want to explain something, the masons did not understand what were they told. Architects gave out their orders, but no one could know what were they talking about. In all the confusion and misunderstandings, the process of building the tower haw come to a stop and people stopped working together.

The tower got the attribute "of Babel" and even today the word "Babel" means a huge turmoil in communication.

The members of different tribes were unhappy considering that they had failed to finish the tower and that they could not communicate between each other. Suddenly, they became strangers to each other and went their different ways on Earth. That is how the "Foreign Lands" began appearing.


End file.
